Thrilled for Austin. Love Colorado Blue…always seems to be smiling on cross country.
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Awesome finish!
Confusing prize giving….Let the man do his victory gallop!
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We need to remember, though, that a lot of this depends on the vendors making money. This gave people time to go back for second looks and maybe pick more items up and get food. I’m sure the vendors pay a hefty fee to be here. And we want to make sure they come back every year.
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I noticed that the CMH commentators were constantly selling the “live experience” – and I’m expecting they were told to do so. I went the first year – wish I could have been there this weekend!
I mean, I totally agree I want to see larger fields.
But I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault; there aren’t that many more five star horses to attract at the moment.
We’ve kind of had the perfect storm of factors taking North American riders out of contingency— covid, continued impact on breeding post the Great Recession, inflation making competing so expensive, a lot of horses retiring without replacements coming up the ranks, plus throw in bad timing with international championships and several top riders away at the Pan Ams. And with Pau right around the corner, it would take an awful lot to convince Euros to come here with the price of everything right now.
I think if we can get inflation in the horse world under control, you will see entries grow. Adding a second five star to NA had the promise of helping us develop more upper level caliber horse and rider partnerships. But right now so few people can justify the cost of getting there. I can name several 5 star riders with 5 star quality horses who just ran out of money to keep going. If the horse isn’t “team” caliber and you don’t have an exceptionally wealthy benefactor, how do you justify the cost of chasing the five star dream? For some riders who have BTDT, they are better off selling the horse to a young rider and staying home to earn money.
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I absolutely think the Euros come over here unless they can win. We go over there ‘for experience’.
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And he got it!
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Legitimate points but how long can you keep running an event with only 25-30 entries? How long will fans pony up money to come watch live or pay that clustF* of streaming just to watch that few number of entries. You can’t just say here are all the excuses, now give me money.
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Ironic to see people complaining about too few entries right after a contentious thread about pushing horses to perform too much too soon.
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I thought the course & event (but for the most disorganized awards EVER) went great. That said, 6 horses were from outside the US and in the end 5 out of 6 of those ended up in the top 7 & the one other, without the vetting withdrawal, would have ended up in the top 8, as well. I am beyond thrilled for Austin & a well deserved win for him but we had our fanny handed to us!!! If we don’t see/get that, we are dreaming!
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Let’s face it, we didn’t exactly have our A string of American horses representing us this weekend.
They’ve been all over the world doing other stuff this summer.
Fun fact (from the Major League Eventing FB page): this is the first time in 58 years that an Irish rider has won a 5 star!
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Dutch Times isn’t well & they are collecting donations for anyone interested in helping.
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Only 1 combo from the 2023 Elite/Pre-Elite training list were present this weekend, and they finished 8th. Overall, there were only 4 riders off the list even riding in the 5 star.
The other combos were at Luhmuhlen or Boekelo, or going to the Pan Ams or Pau, or no longer active.
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It’s notable that Mia’s on a TB, with that finish. The Americans could do a lot with TB breeders/owners following up racing careers into eventing. There are your invested wealthy owners.
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I had to hide from this thread for a full 24 hours before I could escape the office and watch the final phase.
I am DELIGHTED and so thrilled for Austin. I’ve been pulling for him to get his well-deserved win for ages and he did an incredible job.
Comhghairdeas ó chroí leat, a chara!!! Maith thú!
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I wanted Austin, Mia, William as my finishers (Mia and William in 2/3 as it happened). That would have been my dream result. But wow she accomplished so much this weekend. I hope she feels amazing.
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@Blugal Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) is the UK racing industry charity that has the mission to ensure the welfare of horses after racing. It actively promotes the variety of roles these horses fulfil so there are RoR parades of former racers held between races at big days, such as the recent Champion Day at Ascot, there are multiple show classes in different disciplines, such as RoR sections in Eventing or Champion RoR at The Horse of the Year Show (HOYS), and TB dressage is the fastest growing section in British Dressage. RoR provides online and realtime training, advice and practical support for new owners. The website www.ror.org is good. There are, of course, several other organizations also focused on TBs in their second career but RoR, in particular, has money behind it and a professional attitude.
The TV coverage of horseracing places a lot of emphasis on behind the scenes stories about breeding, training, where are they now, people behind the stars, how to get into the industry etc so the general population has opportunity to see in to the life of racing TBs - not least because of the HUGE concern for the “social license” required for racing to continue and to thrive.
IMO, there are two things that have gradually changed the relationship between “the racing industry” and the rest of the horse world. Broad generalisations, needless to say…
One is that more and more trainers actually do better basic training on their animals. Long gone are the days of slapping on a saddle and off to the training gallops, thankfully (think of early Dick Francis stories). Getting young horses balanced, responsive and adjustable, working over poles etc is pretty much standard practice. Potential trainers undergo some training themselves these days!
Second, there is a growing awareness of just how useful Event riders are in training young horses, particularly schooling over fences. That probably started when Yogi Briesner, then top trainer with the British Eventing team, began helping Mark Johnson, one of the best and most forward looking NH Trainers, with his staff. An ah hah! moment as schooled horses had less injury and won more races.
Both of these mean that the horses coming out of training have a decent level of training and the industry is now more aware of life outside of racing. The best TB trainers often have a waiting list of people looking for an OTTB.
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We had a snicker in the grandstand when the announcer noted that Phelps “came off the track as a thoroughbred.” And then transformed into what? A Shetland pony?
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I thought Maryland really came into its own this year.
Entries were a little underwhelming, particularly US entries; however, Pan Ams probably pulled at least two entries, Europeans pulled a few more, a few big name horses out with minor injuries. October is a busy month and I’m sure a lot of people were still waiting for Maryland to find it’s equilibrium course-wise before making it a real target event. I thought Ian nailed, absolutely nailed, the course this year.
Surprised to hear so many complaints about the livestream. Mine worked great all weekend. I do watch quite a bit on CMH and I’ll admit it takes some time to figure out how to navigate the site, but my stream quality was excellent casting from my phone to my TV. I want to give a shoutout to Sinead who has really become an excellent announcer. She’s always come off very natural and entertaining, but she and Spencer S. had an awesome repour and she just seems so much more professional than she did a few years ago.
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I really appreciate and agree with your thoughtful response to the comment above which has been grating on me a little bit.
I came to this thread yesterday after watching the action in person all weekend hoping to catch up on everyone’s thoughts and excitement about what was really a stellar finale to a fun weekend. Instead it was mostly 300 comments of complaints (sorry to those of you who did have positive fun commentary, I’m generalizing!) from people who were not there.
If you live within a 4 hour radius and have not been in person, I encourage you to GO next year! I promise it is no less exciting having 26 horses in the 5* field. The 3* is still plenty of fun to watch if you are a fan of the sport, they have done a great job improving the vendor, food, and transportation experiences each year, tons of top riders are accessible for autographs and pictures if that’s your thing, the weather has been perfectly fall almost every day, and I could go on. The more people that attend, the more sponsors the sport will attract, the more it continues to grow.
And a huge bonus, if you actually attend, they have sent a survey out every year thatI have filled out and I have personally seen them implement numerous things we provided constructive criticism on. Not to mention they clearly listened to rider feedback as well, and wow was cross country fierce this year!
My heart was in my throat all through the rounds Sunday and I am sad to see there is not more discussion and celebration of that awesomeness that occurred! It was so nice to see a true shakeup and have this feel like not a dressage competition - something so many of us have been asking for for so long. We had a very likable and worthy winner, legendary WFP 15 feet from us, and TWO American ladies to be very proud of in 4th and 5th - one a longtime campaigner who is more than deserving and the other a rookie with an “underdog” of a horse - what is not to be excited about?!
All of this to say - if you haven’t been, GO! I hope everyone else who attended had as much fun as we did and that the turnout and competition continue to grow each year! Congrats to all of the riders, horses, and their teams on their accomplishments.
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